This Is Your New Favorite Charitable Company

If you like fashion for a cause, you're going to love this new company from North Carolina. They call themselves SWAP Socks, and they're using coordinating yet purposefully mismatched socks to help provide eye care services to those in need. Founder Roger Nahum explains how it works: "Eighty percent of [blindness] cases in all of the developing world are treatable or preventable with access to basic eye care. SWAP stands for "Style With A Purpose," so for every pack (of SWAP Socks) sold, [the company] makes a donation. These donations give direct aid to communities in need by funding projects that provide vital eye-care services for each pack [the company] sells." However the goal of SWAP Socks is not just to provide care but also to raise awareness of conditions related to eyesight. This is where their clever designs come in.

Each pack of socks contains four different styles that allow the user to swap styles around, and choose from the six different pairings that can be created. Nahum says that the purpose of these mismatched stylings is to help the cause because "when you wear SWAP Socks, you start a conversation about vision, and how that affects everyone." And the best part is that the designs are even inspired by the communities with which SWAP Socks has worked.

"There are a few subtle pattern nods to the communities of people we helped provide vision for in Kampot, Cambodia and Bijuwar, Nepal in our new line," Nahum says. And while the company hopes to incorporate more design inspiration from the communities they work with in future lines, they are proud to report that all of their socks are locally sourced, knit, and packaged in North Carolina.

SWAP Socks currently offer three Swap Packs for $32 each, and are expanding their men's line with six new packs in November 2015. The company hopes to release new collections every four to six months, and by Fall 2016, they aim to develop a women's line of socks.

As the company grows, Nahum shares, they intend to expand Style With A Purpose by creating more apparel and accessory items that give back. But in the meantime: SWAP Socks "for the world to see."

You can shop SWAP Socks online at www.swapsocks.com or in select boutique retailers around the Triangle.

Images: Courtesy of SWAP Socks